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☆ Affirmative Action Is Dead. It’s Time for Corporations to Step Up. - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Angel B. Pérez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

They sit back and wait, content to let the nation’s colleges and universities scout and nurture that talent. Look at what happened when California banned affirmative action nearly 27 years ago. The most obvious way to help colleges level the field among students is to level the field among colleges. Harvard University recently received a gift of $300 million, the University of Chicago received a gift of $100 million and Columbia University received a gift of $175 million. I asked Elsa Núñez, president of Eastern Connecticut State University, what her institution, with its modest $50 million endowment, could do with a $100 million gift.

Persons: —, That’s, Chan Zuckerberg, Pell Grant, Elsa Núñez, “, ”, you’re Organizations: University of California, Apple, Mastercard, Meta, Verizon, Harvard University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Harvard, Trinity Washington University, Pell, Eastern Connecticut State University Locations: California

☆ Opinion | I Teach at an Elite College. Here’s a Look Inside the Racial Gaming of Admissions.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Tyler Austin Harper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Seemingly everyone I interacted with as a tutor — white or brown, rich or poor, student or parent — believed that getting into an elite college required what I came to call racial gamification. Be it for an acceptance letter or a tenure-track professorship, the incentives at elite universities encourage and reward racial gamification. This will only get worse now that the Supreme Court has rejected affirmative action in college admissions. Let me be clear that I am not an opponent of affirmative action. Yet I also believe that affirmative action — though necessary — has inadvertently helped create a warped and race-obsessed American university culture.

Persons: — Organizations: Haverford College, New York University, Bates College

☆ A debate raging in Washington DC over the definition of who qualifies to be an accredited investor could transform the way startups raise money
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Lawmakers and federal regulators are contemplating changing the definition of "accredited investor." There's a philosophical debate raging in Washington that could transform the multitrillion-dollar capital markets and change the way startups raise money. The origins of the definition of "accredited investor" trace back to the Great Depression and the Securities Act of 1933. And since the Reg D exemption's creation, private markets have become the dominant way for most issuers to access capital markets. According to analysis from the Brookings Institution, in 2020, 13.85% of US households qualified as accredited investors, compared with just 1.8% in 1983.

Persons: Gary Gensler, Elizabeth Holmes, Sam Bankman, Ronald Reagan, Reg D, Maxine Waters, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Micah Hauptman, Hauptman, haven't, Marcia Dawood, Dawood, Tyler Gellasch, Gellasch, Theranos Organizations: Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Apple, Securities, Financial Services, Politico, Consumer Federation of America, Yale Endowments, Brookings Institution, Angel Capital Association, ACA, Healthy Markets Association Locations: Washington, of Arkansas, California

FALLING STARWhen Odey set up Odey Asset Management, it was in the afterglow of then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's deregulation of the stock market in London's 1986 "Big Bang". Privately educated at the elite Harrow school, Odey left Oxford University and began his career in traditional asset management before launching Odey Asset Management. But fund performance at Odey Asset Management has been a rollercoaster, with Odey renowned for taking risks. He liked to say leverage was like a drug - once you experienced it, you could never live without it, one hedge fund manager said. Lawmakers on Britain's Treasury Select Committee have written to the FCA to question the regulator's supervision of Odey Asset Management and Odey.

Persons: Crispin Odey, Odey, Banks, Robert Sears, CIOs, Don Steinbrugge, Margaret Thatcher's, Egerton Capital, Marshall Wace, Winton, Kwasi Kwarteng, Maiya Keidan, Nell Mackenzie, Iain Withers, Lawrence White, Dhara Ranasinghe, Elisa Martinuzzi, Alex Richardson Organizations: TORONTO, Reuters, Odey Asset Management, FT, Tortoise Media, Odey, Management, Britain's Financial, Authority, Generation Partners, Odey's, HSBC, Inc, Wall Street, Agecroft Partners, British, Harrow, Oxford University, Conservative Party, Barclays, Peugeot, Hong Kong, Lawmakers, FCA, Thomson Locations: LONDON, City, London, Toronto

☆ How U.C. Berkeley tried to buoy enrollment of Black students without affirmative action
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-18 | by ( Sharon Bernstein | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

[1/5] Prospective students tour the University of California, Berkeley campus before beginning of the new semester, in Berkeley, California, U.S., June 8, 2023. Black student enrollment across the system - which hovered at 3 or 4% for decades after the affirmative action ban - last year rose to 5%. While other campuses in the system have struggled to enroll Black students, the issue has been particularly painful at Berkeley, which under affirmative action had exceeded the system overall in enrollment of Black students. For one, factors such as economics and a school's location are no longer as useful for recruiting Black students, Ogundele said. Last fall, Black students made up 7% of UCLA's freshman class, the same as before affirmative action was banned.

Persons: Carlos Barria, James Bennett, I've, Bennett, Femi, Berkeley's, we've, Ogundele, Tyler Mahomes, didn't, Allexys Cornejo, Judith Painter, Painter, powell, Berkeley's Othering, Shereem Herndon, Brown, They're, Sharon Bernstein, Colleen Jenkins, Diane Craft Organizations: University of California, REUTERS, U.S, Supreme, Berkeley, U.S . News, Best Global Universities, UCLA, Multicultural Resource Center, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Emory University, College, Thomson Locations: Berkeley, Berkeley , California, U.S, BERKELEY, California, Stanford, Puerto Rican, Los Angeles, U.C, Sacramento, Cambodian, Black, Atlanta

☆ A fund manager for institutional clients shares the offensive and defensive strategies she uses to build portfolios that can navigate all conditions and last generations — plus what all investors can
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Menon has discretion over several institutional clients' portfolios including endowments, foundations, pensions, and healthcare institutions. Regardless of expectations, Menon emphasizes that it's hard to build a portfolio around any particular macroeconomic outcome. This means creating a portfolio that prioritizes offensive assets through equities while adding defensive securities, she noted. When it comes to defensive positions, the two most important things a portfolio needs protection against are inflation and deflation. "Private equity would fall more in the space of offense in terms of generating long-term growth in a portfolio," Menon said.

☆ Oxford University wipes the Sackler name from its buildings
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —Oxford University will remove the Sackler name from its buildings following a review of its relationship with the family that recently expressed regret for its role in the US opioid crisis. The 900-year old university said in a statement that it would remove the Sackler name from some of its most prominent landmarks, including parts of the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology and the Bodleian Library. The university said the decision had “the full support of the Sackler family,” adding that it would keep the Sackler name on two donor boards “for the purposes of historical recording of donations to the university.”The Sackler Trust did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. Oxford said in its statement that it had not received any new donations from the Sackler family or its charitable trusts since January 2019. In March, a US judge approved a $6 billion settlement paid by the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma to several US states as well as victims of the opioid crisis.

☆ Venture-Fund Returns Suffer Amid Lower Startup Values
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Berber Jin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Venture-capital-fund performance is languishing amid the broader downturn for tech startups, denting returns for university endowments, pensions and other investors that increased their exposure to the sector during the bull market. For the first time in more than a decade, returns for venture funds were negative for three consecutive quarters last year, according to research firm PitchBook Data, as investors finally began to mark down startups that had ballooned in value. Initial data for the fourth quarter also show a negative quarterly return.

☆ Exclusive: India, China propose 'multiple pathways' on cutting use of fossil fuels-sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Sarita Chaganti Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Multiple pathways for energy transition would enable countries to choose resources, even coal, while working towards plans on net zero emissions. Officials said it was the first time India used the phrase 'multiple pathways' in global climate negotiations against repeated demands by Western nations to end coal usage. At the G20 meeting last month, India kept the focus on fossil fuels, rather than singling out coal, the third official said. India and China, the world's two most populous countries, have often taken common positions at international climate change negotiations, despite long-standing border disputes. The G20 includes the G7 countries as well as Russia, China, India, Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia, among other nations.

☆ Exclusive: The University of California has invested billions in venture capital firms since 2000 and it has lost hundreds of millions so far. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Ben Bergman | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Insider obtained UC Investments' returns through a Public Records Act request. Unlike many other financial institutions, VC funds are not required to show their return on investment in startups. UC Investments, which has been managed by Jagdeep Singh Bachher since 2014, declined to comment. Though selling early produced an initial windfall, UC Investments could have ultimately missed out on substantial gains from these VC funds. By comparison, UC Investments earned a 8.3% return for its investment in public markets.

☆ Wall Street could stand to benefit from recruiting beyond just the Ivies
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insider's Emmalyse Brownstein has one about an investor's unique path to Wall Street. I hope Alfieri's story isn't just valuable to students trying to break into Wall Street. Wall Street could also benefit from casting a wider net among universities to get some diversity of thought. Click here to read some tips for how to nab a job on Wall Street despite not coming from an elite school. This fintech helps Wall Street keep tabs on employees' messengers.

☆ Jonathan Hirtle launched his $18 billion firm in the wake of the 1987 market crash. He told us what he's holding for the long haul, and what's different about the current bank crisis.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Marley Jay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Hirtle also discussed how he's investing clients' money and his long-term market views. Hirtle told Insider that the bank failures of 2023 are very different from what he saw in 1987, or in 2008. So Hirtle says he is concentrating on the long term, and that he prefers the US to other regions. Still, he says that global diversification, and diversification across stocks, bonds, and private equity is important for the long term. In the 2010s bull market, stocks rose about 400% in a little under 11 years.

☆ Emerging venture fund managers had few banking options to begin with. After Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, where do they turn now?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Melia Russell | Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Silicon Valley Bank had long banked a class of startup investors known as emerging managers. He was able to quickly switch from Silicon Valley Bank with an email to his contact at AngelList. Novak is part of a contingent of investors who are shifting their banking strategy in the fallout of Silicon Valley Bank's failure. After Silicon Valley Bank's demise, the big banks have gotten more selective, the three investors said. The big banks like JPMorgan set account minimums for its private banking group, locking out emerging fund managers.

☆ Investors in venture funds reveal how they felt VCs handled the Silicon Valley Bank fallout: one was privately frustrated, while another was impressed
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

After last week's bank run on SVB, many limited partners for VC funds had lots of questions. One LP was unhappy with how VCs in the funds they back handled the SVB crisis. Some LPs are wary of the tech industry's heavy reliance on the bank. But after last week's bank run on Silicon Valley Bank, caused in large part by warnings from several prominent VCs to their portfolio companies to get their money out of the bank, LPs have mixed feelings about how it all went down. "There were a lot of fintech companies in particular, and banking companies that banded together to come up with solutions overnight."

☆ Exclusive: Union Square Ventures warned startup founders in November to diversify their deposit holdings after alarm over Silicon Valley Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Union Square Ventures warned portfolio companies in November to diversify their bank deposits. The warning, which has not been previously reported, never specifically mentioned SVB. "If you read the SVB financial statements, which most people don't do, you could see an impending liquidity crisis," said one source. Venture investment firm Greenoaks Capital Partners also warned its startup founders of potential problems at SVB last November, Bloomberg reported. In December, a New York banker at a large financial institution started getting calls from current Silicon Valley Bank startup founders asking to open accounts, Insider previously reported.

☆ How universities became giant piggy banks for hedge-fund billionaires
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Catherine Liu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The move also marked the beginning of a new way to manage endowment funds. The arrangement has been a boon for the hedge-fund managers who received university endowment cash, but the benefits for the schools are trickier to parse. As Eaton put it in his book, universities directed funds to "wherever those allocations would generate the largest further investment returns." Eaton estimated in 2017 that tax breaks for university endowments cost federal coffers up to $19 billion a year. As the influence of billionaires and hedge-fund managers has grown, universities have moved further away from their ultimate goal: educating people.

☆ Ken Griffin just keeps winning
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

No, 4.1 billion represents the number of dollars Ken Griffin made from his hedge fund, Citadel, in 2022 alone. Griffin made more money in one hour than the average American makes in their lifetime! Oh, and one more thing: That's not even all the money Griffin earned in 2022! I've said before you could make the case for Griffin being the most powerful person on Wall Street. And check out this fascinating profile from Insider's Dakin Campbell on Ken Griffin.

[1/3] A man wearing a protective mask is seen inside the Shanghai Stock Exchange building, as the country is hit by a new coronavirus outbreak, at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai, China, February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song/File PhotoNEW YORK/SINGAPORE, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Many large money managers are steering clear of Chinese assets, missing out on the nation's post-COVID stock market rally in the latest example of strategic concerns trumping juicy returns. "For our investors who might have that concern, there are plenty of other opportunities away from China." The concern flagged by some is whether this is part of a structural downgrade for Chinese assets, said Will Malcolm, a Singapore-based portfolio manager at Aviva Investors. That could attract cash in a hurry, but the behaviour of large investors so far suggests that a large sentiment shift will be needed.

☆ More colleges set to close even as top schools experience application boom
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Citing inflationary pressures and sinking enrollment, more colleges are set to close in 2023. Already, Presentation College in Aberdeen, South Dakota; Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, New York; Holy Names University in Oakland, California; and Living Arts College in Raleigh, North Carolina announced they will shut down after the current academic year. The consequences of fewer students and less tuition revenue since the start of the pandemic have been severe, according to Kristin Reynolds, a partner and leader of NEPC's Endowments and Foundations practice. "Larger institutions can weather the storm," she said. Meanwhile, the country's most elite institutions are thriving.

☆ A 'baby bond' bill to give every child $1,000 at birth has been reintroduced in Congress. How it would work
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The policy is aimed at narrowing the wealth gap, which has grown dramatically in the past 50 years, according to the lawmakers. The idea of baby bonds is getting traction in some states. Baby bond legislation has passed in California, Connecticut and Washington, D.C. Another eight states have introduced legislation, according to the Urban Institute, including Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin, Washington, Delaware, Nevada and Massachusetts. A national policy may reduce the wealthy disparity between young white and Black Americans to a ratio of 1 to 4, according to the research. Estimates have found young white Americans have 16 times the wealth of young Black Americans, based on median incomes.

☆ PayPal's CEO search amid an uncertain economy will be no easy task
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In case you missed it, PayPal CEO and President Dan Schulman announced his plan to retire at the end of 2023 earlier this month. Coming off an extremely difficult 2022, and with competition seemingly coming at them from every which way, PayPal has to find a new CEO. I hesitate to compare this to the seemingly never-ending CEO search at Carlyle, but it's easy to see how a difficult quarter or two could complicate this entire search. The rich stay rich thanks to another loophole that helps them save on taxes. Elliott Management's Paul Singer and Two Sigma's David Siegel both played second fiddle to Haidar Capital's Said Haidar in 2022 when it came to comp.

☆ Thoma Bravo and Clearlake have posted negative returns for a major endowment, according to exclusive performance data. Middle-market firms have been much stronger.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The returns show losses from Thoma Bravo and Clearlake, though the funds are new and PE is a long game. Thoma Bravo and Clearlake Capital Group, two private-equity firms that have emerged as notably active investors in recent years, have posted early losses across some of their funds, according to investment returns from a major US endowment. UTIMCO invested $51.7 million in Clearlake's seventh flagship private equity fund, known as Clearlake Capital Partners VII, which closed with some $14 billion of commitments last May. Thoma Bravo declined to comment. Meanwhile, the data show high returns from CapRock Partners, Renovus Capital Partners, Serve Capital Partners, and LFM Capital, PE firms that target middle-market companies.

☆ Rise of 'zombie' VCs haunts tech investors as plunging valuations hammer the industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Startup investors are increasingly warning of an apocalyptic scenario in the VC world — namely, the emergence of "zombie" VC firms that are struggling to raise their next fund. Life becomes harder for zombie firms in a higher interest rate environment, as it increases their borrowing costs. Investors expect this gloomy economic backdrop to create a horde of zombie funds that, no longer producing returns, instead focus on managing their existing portfolios — while preparing to eventually wind down. "There are definitely zombie VC firms out there. "We're going to see a lot more zombie venture capital firms this year," Steve Saraccino, founder of VC firm Activant Capital, told CNBC.

☆ Returns from top venture firms NEA, DCM, and Khosla have been dismal over the past 2 decades, according to filings from California's largest pension fund, CalPERS
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CalPERS is the US's largest public pension plan, managing the retirement accounts of 1.5 million California employees and retirees. Unlike many other financial institutions, VC funds are not required to show their return on investment in startups. The CalPERS fund's $75 million bet in 2001 on a venture fund managed by the Carlyle Group lost money. A $25 million investment in DCM's 2000 fund had a 1.9% IRR. Its $260 million investment in two Khosla Ventures funds in 2009 yielded an IRR of 11.8% for the early-to-midstage fund and 6.9% for the seed-stage fund.

☆ Buyout barons reach deep into their bags of tricks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Debt necessity is proving to be the mother of private equity invention. With the cheap borrowing that fueled record-breaking years of leveraged buyouts gone, firms are digging deeper into their bags of tricks. Private equity firm Silver Lake, which bought a stake alongside the IPO, said it might take control. Besides putting private equity firms into weaker negotiating positions, the competing incentives also threaten conflicts of interest with limited partners. ...THERE’S A WAYIf the U.S. Federal Reserve avoids engineering a recession, private equity should be able to revert to its tried-and-true formula soon enough.

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